THE Federal Government had sought to pawn off the Mooloolaba fishing industry’s future in exchange for Green preferences, Opposition senator Ron Boswell said yesterday.

Mr Boswell, on the Coast yesterday, said Australia had “the most under-fished” waters in the world and the fishing zones around Double Island Point which the Mooloolaba industry relied on should not be closed off.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett has announced 38% of Australia’s fishing zones are to be closed due to over-fishing, but he has given no details, while the State Government has indicated only snapper are at risk.

“(Opposition Leader) Tony Abbott said in Mackay last week that we needed to start anew (on policy), with no lines on the map,” the Senator said.

“We need to review it all and negotiate with fishermen. We need to ask if something needs protecting.

“Give us the science – and if we’ve got to take fishers out we will buy them out, not just walk away.”

Mr Boswell said he believed “the Greens through preference exchanges had demanded this”.

Coast seafood industry representative and trawler operator Paul Higginbottom said Mr Garrett’s proposal to shut down large areas to fishing would “concentrate us all into one area”.

“It would put more pressure on fish here and do more harm than up there,” he said.

“Do we want a fishing industry, do we want fresh local seafood or want to import?”

Mr Higginbottom said the Coalition wanted to work with the industry “but Peter Garrett is taking a baseball bat to it”.

But Mr Garrett said the Coalition was “disguising thought bubbles as policy” and said the Government was continuing a policy the Howard Government had put in place.

“The trick here from Mr Abbott is that he has suspended a process started under Mr Howard without saying what his alternative process will be if he were to win government,” he said.

“The Government is already undertaking a thorough consultation process with the community designed to strike a balance between multiple use areas where fishing can continue and highly protected areas.”